Australians Working Overseas To Repay HECS Debt

[icyfroth]

Tens of thousands of Australians living overseas will no longer be able to avoid paying off their student loans, under new measures to be announced in the Federal budget.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne said from 2017, Australians living overseas will be legally obliged to repay their HECS and HELP debts.

New legislation will target those who have been living abroad for more than six months and who are earning more than $53,000 a year.

Mr Pyne said changes will make the system fairer and are expected to raise more than $140 million for the Government over 10 years.

"Currently, because graduates living overseas don't have to do an Australian tax return, there is no way to know if they are earning above the threshold that triggers HECS repayments and many get off scot-free," he said in a statement.

"Others come back to a debt that has been accruing interest at CPI rates while they are away.

"No government has ever tackled this obviously unfair situation - it's been in the too-hard basket. Our plan will enforce the same HECS repayment obligations on Australians living overseas that apply to those who remain on our shores."

He said the changes will include repayment obligations from July 1, 2017 based on 2016-17 income.

"There is no good reason why someone working as a banker in London or New York and earning over the threshold shouldn't pay back what they owe Australia," Mr Pyne said.

Under the current system, overseas debtors are able to make voluntary HECS repayments to the Australian Tax Office but are not under any legal obligation to do so.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-02/australians-working-abroad-to-repay-student-loans/6439888

Not til 2017. I wonder how they'll go after them.

[cherry*135]

Pyne's soft policy/thought bubble.

Has he even made any agreements with other countries yet? 

[cherry*135]

The proposed plan will include repayment obligations from July 1, 2017.................

[village_person]

---

@icyfroth wrote:

Tens of thousands of Australians living overseas will no longer be able to avoid paying off their student loans, under new measures to be announced in the Federal budget.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-02/australians-working-abroad-to-repay-student-loans/6439888

Not til 2017. I wonder how they'll go after them.

---

Great idea. We - the taxpayers, remember us - pay to educate them and then they take off o/seas to earn their $$$$$$.

[i-need-a-martini]

Seriously? We are going to waste money chasing a (relative) handful of people overseas.

Meanwhile, the stats show that the a significant number of uni graduates (the vast majority who stay in the country) never reach the magic $53,000 salary heights required to start paying off their debt.

If the govt wants to recover their money it would be more logical to lower the threshold.

[i-need-a-martini]

But of course this idea is from the same man who suggested we collect the HECS debt from dead students last year...

[gleee58]

---

@i-need-a-martini wrote:

But of course this idea is from the same man who suggested we collect the HECS debt from dead students last year...

---

It seems as if Pyne and the rest of them spend their time dreaming up ways of turning Aussie people against other Aussie people.  

[rabbitearbandicoot]

---

@i-need-a-martini wrote:

Seriously? We are going to waste money chasing a (relative) handful of people overseas.

Meanwhile, the stats show that the a significant number of uni graduates (the vast majority who stay in the country) never reach the magic $53,000 salary heights required to start paying off their debt.

If the govt wants to recover their money it would be more logical to lower the threshold.

---

what the !@#$ are they doing with their superior education? Can't earn $53,000 a year? What a Joke! 

I agree with the lower threshold - it should be anything above the basic wage.

I had to pay all my debts no matter how much / little I was earning.

[***super_nova***]

Most sane people do make attempt to repay their HECS, if they do not the debt keeps growing.  I would like to know the figures how many people who have good jobs o/s are not paying the debt.   It is more likely there is a large number of kids backpacking for a while.   I am sure there are lot of young people who after finishing their studies travel for a bit, and some may get a good job in UK or USA and stay for couple of years, but living costs there are huge and wages not so great.  Most then return to Australia with good working experience, which means they find it easier to get a good job here.  Sooner or later they repay their HECS. 

I cannot see it possible that many people with degrees never reach the $50K threshold.  OK some women may be at home for a while with kids, but there are not many who would stay at home for ever.  Once they go back to work they would exceed the threshold soon; my daughter earns more than $50K for only 3 days a week.  (she has paid off her HECS years ago).

[vicr3000]

---

@rabbitearbandicoot wrote:

---

@i-need-a-martini wrote:

Seriously? We are going to waste money chasing a (relative) handful of people overseas.

Meanwhile, the stats show that the a significant number of uni graduates (the vast majority who stay in the country) never reach the magic $53,000 salary heights required to start paying off their debt.

If the govt wants to recover their money it would be more logical to lower the threshold.

---

what the !@#$ are they doing with their superior education? Can't earn $53,000 a year? What a Joke! 

I agree with the lower threshold - it should be anything above the basic wage.

I had to pay all my debts no matter how much / little I was earning.

---

rabbit

but some aren't like you, they just use the rules to their own advantage.

I don't think the budget went far enough on collecting HECS debts.

As said above, lower the threshhold, especially over time and after 10 years, anything above the basic wage has to be paid back

and if married, that taken into account as well so both incomes used when asssessing the threshold level.